Dembélé nets first-half hat trick as France beats Norway 4-1 at World Cup

FOXBOROUGH (AP): France forward Ousmane Dembélé finished with three first-half goals—one after a pass from Kylian Mbappé—as his side pulled away to beat Norway 4-1 at the World Cup yesterday.

Dembélé struck in the seventh, 20th, and 32nd minutes. No player had managed a hat trick in the opening 45 minutes at a World Cup since Russia’s Oleg Salenko put three of his five goals past Cameroon in the first half at the 1994 tournament in the United States.

France’s fourth came deep in second-half stoppage time through Désiré Doué. Dembélé, the 2025 Ballon d’Or winner who has now reached four goals at this World Cup, was withdrawn in the 65th minute and replaced by Bradley Barcola.

Norway briefly responded after Dembélé’s second strike. Thelo Aasgaard scored just 14 seconds after kick-off following the restart. Dembélé restored France’s two-goal cushion with his third less than nine minutes later.

The brace lifted Dembélé’s tally for his country to eight international goals. Mbappé, who supplied the assist for one of those strikes, now has 16 goals and four assists across 17 World Cup appearances. He had scored twice in each of France’s victories over Senegal and Iraq.

Norway rested several first-choice players. Erling Haaland was one of 10 regular starters left out of the line-up, and Egil Selvik took over in goal for Orjan Nyland among widespread changes.

France, champions in 2018 and runners-up four years later, had already clinched a place in the knockout stage before yesterday’s fixture. Norway were also guaranteed a round-of-32 spot and finished second in the group.

Dembélé’s display added to a long list of World Cup hat-trick milestones. The fastest ever took seven minutes and 42 seconds when Hungary substitute Laszlo Kiss scored three late against El Salvador at the 1982 tournament in Spain. The quickest from the opening whistle came at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, when Austria’s Erich Probst hit three inside 24 minutes against Czechoslovakia.

France nearly opened the scoring after only 21 seconds. Mbappé raced down the right and drove a shot that beat Selvik but rattled the crossbar.

Dembélé’s opener came with room to work. He collected Mbappé’s pass and drove a right-footed effort across Selvik into the net.

For his second, he slipped between three defenders at the edge of the area and curled a left-footed shot beyond Selvik’s dive.

Norway had a route back into the match in the 49th minute when France defender Theo Hernandez was penalised for tripping Oscar Bobb in the box. Jorgen Strand Larsen’s spot kick toward the right corner was pushed aside by France goalkeeper Mike Maignan.